Flood Risk Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Different approaches to the control of floodplain ‘encroachment’ exist in France and in England and Wales. In France, a ‘coercive’ approach emphasises strong central government intervention within a system of designated risk zones for all natural hazards. In England and Wales, a more ‘cooperative’ approach prevails, with the dominant power being with democratically elected local authorities. Ideas and policies are

- by and +1
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- Human Geography, England and Wales, Flood Risk, Natural hazard
- by Robert Brown
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- Hydrology, Flood Risk Management, Arid environments, Rainfall-Runoff modelling

Assessment of flood risk zonation and landscape vulnerability to
flood are fundamental aspects in flood risk management. Landsat
8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and ASTER DEM data were used
to assess landscape vulnerability to flood inundation and flood risk
in Malda district of West Bengal state, India. Flood inundation
map was prepared on the basis of water and non-water pixels on
images (before and during the flood event). Flood risk map was
prepared using equal interval of separation based on elevation
and inundated flooded area. Flood inundation map was overlaid
on the pre-monsoon land use/land cover map to produce
landscape vulnerability to flood. The results revealed that 19%
area of the district was flooded during monsoon flood event in
2014 and the agricultural area was most affected land use,
sharing 62% of the total flood affected area, followed by river bed
(21%), built up (7%) and vegetation (5%). The flood risk map of
the district shows that temporary river islands, sand banks along
the Ganga river course lie in low flood plain and were considered
under high risk zone. The flood plain alongside minor stream
drainage in southern, north-western and in between them comes
under medium flood risk zones. Flood risk is low in areas which
are away from the rivers. Non flooded areas were identified in
high lands of eastern region of the district. Landscape vulnerability
map shows that the blocks located along the Ganga river namely
Kaliachak I, Kaliachak II, Kaliachak III, Manikchak, Ratua I were
highly vulnerable to flood. The study suggests that efforts should
be made to remove the sediments for increasing the depth of
river. Spurs and bed bars should be constructed to avoid great
loss of prime agricultural land, property and lives of people.

- by mehebub sahana and +1
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- Flood Risk Management, Flood modelling, Flood Risk
- by Tarek Merabtene
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- Psychology, Natural Hazards, Numerical Analysis, Atmospheric sciences

The main goal of this paper is to develop a flood management model that takes into account the specifics of catastrophic risk management: highly mutually dependent losses, the lack of information, the need for long-term perspectives and... more

- by Istvan Galambos
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- Economics, Catastrophe Modeling, Flood Risk, Stochastic Optimization

In May 2014, extreme floods occurred in the lower Sava River basin, causing major damage, with catastrophic consequences. Based on the data gathered, the weather situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Bosna River basin was analysed and the hydrological conditions were provided, including the results of the probability analysis of the size of the recorded precipitation and flow rates. A hydrological model of the Bosna River basin was developed using HBV-light for the purposes of reconstructing and forecasting such events more effectively. All analyses confirmed that the May 2014 event was an extreme event whose returning period greatly exceeds 100 years.

- by Andrej Vidmar
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- Geology, Flood modelling, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Western Balkans
- by Jochen Schanze
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- Flood Risk Management, Flood Risk

The scientific literature has documented the growing risks of flooding posed for Asia’s coastal cities by the combination of climate change, as reflected in sea level rise and intensified storms and storm surges, and ongoing urban growth in low-lying coastal zones. These issues were already elaborated in the 2007 IPCC (IPCC, 2007) reports but recent studies indicate that climate change, sea level rise and the sinking of the deltas on which most Asian mega urban regions have arisen, are all occurring at much faster rates than earlier projected and therefore pose even greater risks than previously indicated. Global warming appears to be accelerating and may increase to 4° C or more by the end of this century, twice the earlier IPCC projections. The sea level is now expected to rise by one meter or more by 2100; two or three times the earlier projections. The recent typhoons and rains striking Southeast Asia have been the most intense in decades as would be expected as a result of glob...

- by Elizabeth "Cedar" Louis
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- Climate Change, Urban Planning, Southeast Asia, Sea Level

The Foresight Future Flooding project has analysed future flood risk in a scenario framework for the whole of the UK. The analysis predicts increasing flood risk unless current flood management policies and investment levels are changed, with up to a twentyfold increase in economic risk by the 2080s. The increase is attributable to a combination of climate change and increasing value of household, industrial and infrastructure assets. Potential responses are assessed in terms of the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economic. The work described has formed much of the evidence base for the new government strategy for flood risk management in England, 'Making space for water'.

- by Paul Sayers
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- Civil Engineering, Proceedings, Water Management, Flood Risk

Italy is a country highly vulnerable to floods and landslides. The present study aims to investigate disaster preparedness and perception of flood risk in a group of people living in an alpine valley in the north of Italy. Four hundred seven adult residents in nine communities exposed to hydrogeological risk were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire. Participants were asked about the adoption of a set of protective behaviors that can prevent negative consequences of floods. Perception of flood risk was assessed by means of a onedimensional scale that was developed and validated by the authors. Items included in this scale asked participants to estimate likelihood of occurrence of different flood consequences and to express feelings of worry associated to them. Socio-demographic and experiential information on respondents were also collected. Overall, results showed that most of respondents were fairly well prepared to deal with a future flood disaster. Correlational and regression analyses indicated that disaster preparedness was positively associated with risk perception. In accordance with literature, there was not a significant relation between likelihood judgments and adoption of protective behaviors, while feelings of worry were associated with disaster preparedness. Authors interpret their results in relation to the socio-environmental characteristics of the studied communities. Theoretical, empirical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

- by Renato Miceli
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- Environmental Psychology, Disaster Preparedness, Multidisciplinary, Emotions

This paper presents interview survey data by social scientists using established health measures on the health effects of flooding for residents in 30 locations in England and Wales. Firstly, it examines the extent to which flooded residents reported suffering physical and psychological health effects during and after the event. Secondly, it explores the issue of whether these effects were long-lasting by comparisons with the general population and with those at risk but not flooded. In the study, about two thirds of the flood victims were found to have scores on the General Health Questionnaire-12 scale indicative of mental health problems (scores of 4+) at their worst time after flooding. The evidence of the study also suggests that some flood victims suffered long term mental health effects as a result of their experience of flooding. The study examines the influence of a wide range of factors: characteristics of the flood event, types of property, and socio-demographic and the i...

- by colin green
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- Flood Risk Management, Health, Adolescent, Multidisciplinary

Risk analysis provides a rational basis for flood management decision-making at a national scale, as well as regionally and locally. National-scale flood risk assessment can provide consistent information to support the development of flood management policy, allocation of resources and monitoring the performance of flood mitigation activities. However, nationalscale risk assessment presents particular challenges in terms of data acquisition and manipulation, numerical computation and presentation of results. A methodology that addresses these difficulties through appropriate approximations has been developed and applied in England and Wales. The methodology represents the processes of fluvial and coastal flooding over linear flood defence systems in sufficient detail to test alternative policy options for investment in flood management. Flood outlines and depths are generated, in the absence of a consistent national topographic and water level data set, using a rapid parametric inundation routine. Potential economic and social impacts of flooding are assessed using national databases of floodplain properties and demography. A case study of the river Parrett catchment and adjoining sea defences in Bridgwater Bay in England demonstrates the application of the method and presentation of results in a Geographical Information System.

- by Paul Sayers
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- Flood Risk

Flooding in urban areas represents a particular challenge to modellers and flood risk managers because of the complex interactions of surface and sewer flows. Quantified flood risk estimates provide a common metric that can be used to compare risks from different sources. In situations where there are several organisations responsible for flood risk management we wish to be able to disaggregate the total risk and attribute it to different components in the system and/or agents with responsibility for risk reduction in ...

- by Richard Dawson
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- Civil Engineering, Hydroinformatics, Flood Risk, NICE

An examination of Dutch local and regional spatial plans adopted in 2005 has shown that water safety is hardly an issue in Dutch local and regional planning practices. In the light of Dutch climate change scenarios, projecting sea level rise, land subsidence in the peat areas and an increase in extremely high river discharges of the largest Dutch river systems this is at the very least striking. In this paper, it was explored why flooding from the sea or rivers is not considered in Dutch spatial planning at the local and regional level. Dutch flood management policy turned out to be mainly focused on flood prevention through the construction and maintenance of water defences. If the water defences meet the legal safety criteria, spatial developments within the dike-ring, the area protected by water defences, are formally legitimate and additional spatial planning measures to mitigate the residual risk are not compulsory. As a result, flood risk issues are hardly considered in spatial planning practices. In the light of this established prevention practices, it was a striking finding that another discourse appeared in spatial planning practices. In this discourse, additional spatial flood mitigation measures in the dike-ring area were considered to reduce the residual flood risk in the dike-ring area. Four factors have been distinguished that lead to this different consideration of flood risks in spatial planning practices: the conceptualisation of flood risks, the felt public concerns, the felt responsibilities and the felt necessity to legitimise spatial developments.

- by Jeroen Neuvel
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- Climate Change, Regional Planning, Land Use Planning, Sea level rise

The article provides a proposal for a mapping vulnerability catalogue adapted to the requirements of implementation of measures in the framework of european risk management, and more specifically, to those expressed in the risk management plans in the ARPS (Potential Significant Risk Areas) through local plans. The paper ponders the concept of vulnerability to risk, and point out inaccurate aspects that hinder the development of consensus-based vulnerability mapping. Examples of the proposed mapping applied to the area of flooding of the river Guadalhorce (Málaga) are attached

- by María Jesús Perles and +1
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- Flood Risk
- by Joan Rossello
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- Flood modelling, Flood Risk, Extreme Rainfall, Flood hazard

Flood hazard and disaster in Iran is one of the most frequent and damaging types of natural disaster. The Gorganroud watershed in the Golestan province recently has incurred severe damages resulted from flood events. Thus, this work was aimed to assess and map the flood susceptibility areas in the Gorganroud watershed to propose a comprehensive layout for flood monitoring and alarming stations. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) integrated with Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) approach within the GIS environment was employed to extract flood hazard zones. Results revealed that the cities Maraveh Tape,

- by Daniele Wrachien
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- Civil Engineering, Climate Change, Irrigation, Risk assessment

This paper considers the possible benefits of mitigation of climate change for coastal areas with a strong emphasis on sea-level rise, as this is one of the most certain consequences of human-induced global warming. There is a long-term 'commitment to sea-level rise' due to the long thermal lags of the ocean system and hence the response of sea-level rise to mitigation is slower than for other climate factors. Therefore, while climate stabilisation reduces coastal impacts during the 21st century, compared to unmitigated emissions, the largest benefits may occur in the 22nd century (and beyond). The results of the analysis suggest that a mixture of adaptation and mitigation policies need to be considered for coastal areas, as this will provide a more robust response to human-induced climate change than either policy in isolation. This requires the joint evaluation of mitigation and adaptation in coastal areas, ideally using a probabilistic risk-based methodology, which would be a departure from existing analyses. Because of the long time constants involved such assessments need to continue beyond 2100 to provide the full implications of the different policy choices. r

- by Dr. Suresh kumar
- •
- Climate Change, Global Environmental Change, Multidisciplinary, Global Warming

Agricultural practices in the UK have come under increased scrutiny since the heavy and widespread flooding of 2000 and 2001. Although the impact of land use on runoff and flood risk is of growing concern, there are few quantitative data available. A preliminary study was undertaken in the Nant Pontbren catchment, mid-Wales. Experimental tree shelterbelts were established in selected pastures of land used for sheep grazing. Water infiltration rates were up to 60 times higher in areas planted with young trees than in adjacent grazed pastures. This demonstrates that farm trees could represent a key landscape feature, reducing run-off even when only present as a small proportion of the land cover. This is likely to be just one of the environmental and economic benefits of planting trees to re-create a more diverse agricultural landscape.

- by Fergus Sinclair
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- Flood Risk, Soil sciences, Agricultural land use change

This memo is the result of an exploration of possible sources on the Eastern Scheldt estuary. The memo’s aim is to provide a clear point of departure for the Eastern Scheldt Survey, which will summarize up to date knowledge on the Eastern Scheldt Barrier and its effects.
It offers the opportunity for the Severe Storm Prediction Education and Evacuation from Disasters-center (SSPEED), the commissioner of the Survey, to give further direction to the search if required.
Being the product of much public and expert debate, the barrier and the estuary have enjoyed much attention over the last decades, resulting in numerous publications addressing a variety of topics. The findings of the exploration of these sources are grouped in three categories: (1) decision-making regarding the construction of the barrier, (2) the environmental effects, and (3) the effect on the regional spatial-economic development pattern. Within these categories, the following themes were studied:
i. Public and expert debate before, during and after construction (and its effect on policy and decision-making)
ii. Effects on hydrodynamics, sediment fluxes and morphology
iii. Effects on benthos and primary production
iv. Effects on wading birds
v. Mitigation measures
vi. Economy
vii. Land use development pattern

Flood risk to the economy, society and the environment reflects the cumulative effects of environmental and socio-economic change over decades. Long-term scenarios are therefore required in order to develop robust and sustainable flood risk management policies. Quantified national-scale flood risk analysis and expert appraisal of the mechanisms causing change in flood risk have been used to assess flood risk in England and Wales over the period 2030-2100. The assessment involved the use of socio-economic and climate change scenarios. The analysis predicts increasing flood risk unless current flood management policies, practices and investment levels are changed-up to 20-fold increase in economic risk by the 2080s in the scenario with highest economic growth. The increase is attributable to a combination of climate change (in particular increasing precipitation and relative sea level rise in parts of the UK) and increasing socio-economic vulnerability, particularly in terms of household/industrial contents and infrastructure vulnerability. The policy implications of these findings are discussed. r

- by Paul Sayers
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- Climate Change, Economic Growth, Multidisciplinary, England and Wales

The understanding of how people evaluate and respond to natural hazards in an urban area, and how this knowledge can be integrated in the planning and management process, are becoming very important elements of a comprehensive and participatory approach to flood hazard management. Such an approach demands a clear comprehension of the processes of the risks perception, causal attribution, possible solutions for the problem and patterns of behaviour developed during hazard situations. The willingness of the public to participate in flood management, and the attitudes to previous initiatives also need to be addressed. The provision of structural flood defences can have a major impact on the environment and there has been an expression of concern by many members of the public for the degradation of river corridors. In this context, it is becoming a commonly accepted practice by central or local governments to submit flood management plans to public discussion. Appropriate techniques for interfacing with the public are necessary to support this upsurge of public involvement. This paper presents results from research on public perception of floods, flood management and participatory initiatives in Setúbal, Portugal. An extensive interview programme was undertaken with residents and shopkeepers – with and without flood experience, professionals responsible for dealing with flood control problems and local authorities responsible for decision-making on flood management. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for flood hazard management policy making and processes.

- by Graça AN Saraiva
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- Decision Making, Water resources, Water Resources Management, Multidisciplinary

This paper presents the results of a dichotomous choice contingent valuation (CV) study of flood control policy in Bangladesh. The application of CV studies in the domain of flood exposure and flood control, where people are asked to trade-off money income in terms of willingness to pay (WTP), the risk of flooding and corresponding impacts on their life and livelihood, is rare. The use of CV in developing countries furthermore faces the challenge of significant income constraints, limiting the applicability of the method. ...

- by Enamul Haque
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- Seasonality, Risk Aversion, Developing Country, Contingent valuation
- by Sandipan Ghosh
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- Geography, Environmental Geography, Regional Geography, Physical Geography
- by Zbigniew Kundzewicz
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- Management, Civil Engineering, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation

1] Better understanding of flood occurrences and long-term, floodplain planning, and flood risk assessment is achieved by integration of gauged, historical, and paleoflood data. The Ardèche River is ideal for this historical flood-paleoflood study because its historical flood levels record dates back as early as A.D. 587 and useful data date back to A.D. 1522, its systematic gauging record is over 100 years long, and the geologic and geomorphic settings are optimal for paleoflood studies. Three sites provide three different thresholds for flood stages and SWD accumulation. According to our onedimensional (1-D) step-backwater calculations these three thresholds are 5200-5700 m 3 s À1 , 4900-5400 m 3 s À1 , and 3600-4000 m 3 s À1 recording 6, 9, and 19 large Holocene floods, respectively. Dating the deposits enabled a correlation with the historical record. These paleoflood studies indicate that there are long gaps in flood occurrences on the Ardèche River; the floods are not randomly distributed in time but are clustered. They also indicate that the recent nineteenth century floods were the largest at the millennial timescale.

- by Tamir Grodek
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- Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Water resources, Nineteenth Century

In recent decades, extreme rains and drought have struck urban regions in Africa like never before. Nevertheless, limited information is available on which to base development of early warning systems, identification of high-risk zones and formulation of local action plans. This book is about how to build the knowledge necessary for planning adaptation to climate change in Sub-Saharan cities. It brings together lessons learned from international development actions conducted by a number of scholars in disciplines ranging from meteorology and hydrogeology to urban planning and environmental management. Selected methods to assess the impacts of extreme weather and ecological stress are presented along with possible approaches to improve the adaptive capacity of Sub-Saharan cities through institutional measures at the local government level. The book is addressed to graduate students, researchers and practitioners interested in enhancing their knowledge and skills in order to integrate climate change into applied research and development projects in urban Africa.

- by Maurizio TIEPOLO
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- Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Risk Management, Vulnerability

In Flood Control 2015, technology is used as a means to enable people to better assess and respond to risky situations. From manager to citizen, people make decisions depending upon the circumstances at hand. If there is more certainty about the current situation, and if pertaining information is purposefully provided, the adverse consequences of flooding can be limited. By making smart use of the most advanced information and technology available, Flood Control 2015 makes it possible to take informed action. As illustration of the applicability and need of the Flood Control 2015 advances, ample use was made of these innovations not only within the Netherlands, but also in Indonesia and the US. Improved flood forecasting systems or real-time monitoring of flood defences are not objectives in themselves. A characteristic feature of the Flood Consortium 2015 is that it develops knowledge and tools that are suitable for use in day-to-day practice of several professional disciplines, not only for those responsible for operational water management but also for decision-makers on different levels, crisis managers, communication advisors, news agencies and the emergency services. All of the aforementioned benefit from the yields of this program. Let us not forget about the communities within the areas at risk who will now be better equipped to help themselves and their neighbours by using this improved information and means of communication.

- by Sharon Cundill and +2
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- Flood Risk Management, Flood Mitigation, Flood Forecasting, Flood modelling

The aim of this paper is to identify and map the risk of flooding areas in the semi-mountainous region of Côte d'Ivoire. This work is based on the integration within a GIS of data interpreted from Landsat TM imagery, image based on a digital elevation model (DEM), and hydroclimatic data. The processing steps, using remote sensing and GIS softwares, include : 1) DEM building with contour level extracted from topographic map, 2) determination of morphometric variables using DEM, 3) processing of Landsat TM imagery and thematic mapping, and 4) integration of the different layers deduced from satellite data, DEM and its derived data, complementary data and spatial analysis within a GIS. The main flooding risk factors are : rainfall, land cover, rivers network, slopes, lithologic and structural domains. Multicriteria spatial analysis into a GIS allowed mapping the hazards and the vulnerable areas. The integration of these layers allowed mapping the flooding risk of this study area o...

- by Mahaman Bachir SALEY
- •
- Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis, Data Interpretation, Land Cover

In this paper, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to delineate the raingauge network of Tanzania into homogeneous groups. The monthly rainfall records for the years 1961 -1990 inclusive at 150 raingauge stations used in the study were extracted from the records at the Directorate of Meteorology, Tanzania. The spatial patterns of the rotated PCA dominant modes delineated Tanzania's raingauge network into 15 homogeneous groups. Statistical tests, climatological information, topographic features and other data supported the physical reality of the 15 delineated groups. The delimited rainfall regions may be useful for Tanzania in agricultural planning, the assessment of water resources potential, delineation of drought or flood risk zones and as a basis of ensuring collection of climatologically representative rainfall data by the inclusion of a station(s) from each homogeneous rainfall region.

- by C. Basalirwa and +1
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- Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Climatology, Principal Component Analysis

Results of past research suggest that affect plays an important role in risk perception. Because affect may also increase the availability of risks, affect and availability are closely related concepts. Three studies tested the hypothesis that evoking negative affect (fear), either through past experience or through experimental manipulation, results in greater perceived risk. The present research focused on perception of flooding risk. Study 1 and Study 2 showed that participants who received risk information concerning a longer time period (e.g., 30 years) perceived more danger compared with participants who received risk information for one year. Study 2 showed that the interpretation of risk information was influenced by participants' own experiences with flooding. In Study 3, affect was experimentally manipulated. After looking at photographs depicting houses in a flooded region, participants perceived greater risk compared with participants in a control group. Taken together, the results of these three studies suggest that affect is important for successful risk communication. Results of the present research are in line with the affect heuristic proposed by Slovic and colleagues.

- by Heinz Gutscher
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- Communication, Decision Making, Risk, Risk communication

Caractérisée par des pentes faibles, un sol souvent imperméable et traversée par Oued Majerda, le cours le plus grand de la Tunisie, la plaine de Jendouba-Bou Salem, a été à plusieurs reprises, envahie par les eaux des fortes pluies. Le risque des inondations n'y est pas nouveau; mais sa fréquence et l'ampleur de ses dégâts semblent avoir augmenté au cours des dernières années. L'Homme a joué un rôle important dans cette évolution. De fait, les changements d'occupation des terres sont à l'origine d'une modification profonde de la géomorphologie des oueds et des terrains qui les jouxtent. En témoignent le retrait parfois impressionnant des berges ainsi que le changement des trajectoires des cours d'eau et surtout la mise en place d'importantes accumulations sédimentaires bien visibles dans le paysage. Des illustrations expressives ont été relevées lors des évènements les plus récents de mai 2000 et surtout celui de janvier-février 2003. D'autres indices d'instabilité des lits à l'occasion des crues ont été révélés par une étude comparée des documents cartographiques et photographiques de différentes dates.

- by LAHMAR Lotfi
- •
- Geomorphology, Flood Risk, Field Work

Flood risks not only include loss of human lives and properties, but also the transportation and communication. One major road in Kuching, the Kuching-Batu Kawa-Bau Expressway is often flooded and interrupted by floodwaters from Sarawak River. The Sarawak State Government had announced to build a flood bypass channel in Sarawak River to mitigate flood under the Ninth Malaysian Plan. This paper is a study on the effects of the structure in the flooding of the mentioned road stretch. The January 2004 event which is locally known as a 100-year flood, was run through a developed river model incorporated with the bypass facilities. The model had indicated a reduction of 53% of flooded road. Similarly, modelling of 10 and 50-year design floods had predicted over 50% of reduction. The bypass channel was said to be able to alleviate the flooding on the major road stretch.

- by Ron Aldrino and +1
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- Decision Making, Mathematical Modelling, Flood Risk, State government

The rural space is increasingly valued for the multiple ecosystem services that it can deliver. For example, priorities in many lowland floodplains in England have changed in recent years from a focus on agricultural production towards environmental quality and the management of flood risk, in part linked to climate change. Recent concerns about food security, however, may reinstate the importance of agricultural production in these fertile areas. This paper explores changes in rural land use in floodplains by measuring the range of ecosystem services provided under different management scenarios. Generic land use scenarios consider management options that focus on single objectives, such as maximising agricultural production, maximising biodiversity and maximising flood storage capacity. Indicators are developed to value the ecosystem services provided by floodplains under each scenario, identifying potential synergy and conflict. This integrated ecosystems approach can help to inform future policy and practice for floodplain management, hopefully in ways that appeal to key stakeholders.

- by David Gowing
- •
- Climate Change, Ecological Economics, Applied Economics, Ecosystem Approach

Within-channel alluvial gravel extraction is one of the most important forms of anthropogenically induced morphological change in river channels. In British rivers commercial gravel extraction was widespread between the 1930s and 1960s, and limited gravel extraction operations to reduce flood risk or maintain navigation continue to the present day. Despite this, gravel extraction has received little attention in UK river studies. This paper examines the significance of within-channel gravel extraction, during the period 1945-1960, on the planform of the River Wear in northern England. The study focuses on two 3 km piedmont reaches at Wolsingham and Harperley Park, located at the margin of the upland zone. Examination of detailed archival accounts of the gravel extraction operations, supplemented by the analysis of aerial photographs has enabled the impact of gravel extraction on the channel of the River Wear to be determined. Sediment budget calculations suggest large sediment deficits in both study reaches, however, assessing potential impacts simply in terms of a sediment deficit may be misleading as channel adjustments depend on local factors and a detailed consideration of the reach-scale sediment budget. Differences in the nature of channel adjustments of both reaches were found to be primarily a function of the method of gravel extraction employed. Overall patterns of channel change along the extraction reaches, over the past 150 years, were similar to reaches where gravel extraction was not practiced. This highlights the difficulty of trying to establish the significance of different processes where both local (gravel extraction) and catchment-scale factors (climate and land use) are operating.

- by Jeff Warburton
- •
- Geology, Geomorphology, Aerial Photography, Flood Risk

Floods are one of the most common and hazardous natural disasters worldwide. In Malaysia, flood is the reason for highest economic damages and loss of human lives as well. Frequency and magnitude of flood is increasing not only because of climate change, but also anthropogenic activities are directly related to it. This study based on a survey where 280 respondents participate who lives in the Temerloh district which is in the midstream zone of Pahang River basin. This paper highlights respondents flood experience and identifies the cause of flood from the view of lay people. Results show that respondents are well known and experienced about the flood and flood related damages. However, their perception about cause of flood was only focused on the natural cause ignoring anthropogenic activities such as land use changes which may reflect the land use change in this area. To identify the land use changes, we also used classified shape file of 2000 and 2010 from Department of Agriculture, Malaysia and used overlay procedure in ArcGIS 10.1.
Within only 10 years, significant land use changes were found which can increase the future flood risk. Policy makers and decision makers should involve the local community in the decision making which may develop their flood risk perception and awareness about sustainable land use.

- by Robert Brown
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- Flood Risk Management, Saudi Arabia, Flood modelling, Flood Risk
- by Kaoru Takara
- •
- Flood Risk Management, Flood Risk

The 1 st Doctoral Day Organized by the Laboratory of Geodynamics and Natural Resources aims to introduce young people and former PhD students whose idea is to improve the quality of research and achieve better results. The figurative works whose collection gives a global idea on the diversity of the subjects of research in the laboratory geodynamics and natural resources.

- by Jad Tahouri and +1
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- Soil Science, Flood Risk Management, Coastal Geomorphology, Quaternary Geology

Using a LIDAR-Derived DEM FIGURE 7 Close-up of the three flood extents for the waterfront area of Charlottetown. The image is a color shaded relief of the DSM.

- by Steve Dickie and +1
- •
- Flood Risk, Storm surge

A term papert on Flood Risk Management in Ghana: A Case Study in Accra

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans. The (near-) complete evacuation of the city led to the nation-wide dislocation of vulnerable citizens. Today, its reconstruction and recovery seems to be 'uneven'. The author views urban disaster recovery as an interaction of particular spatial, institutional, and social aspects. Uneven recovery is conceptualized as disconnect between planning for urban disaster recovery, impacted populations, and the places in the city they inhabit. As process, it encompasses heterogeneous cases of 'strong' or 'weak' recovery within the city. Based on a socio-spatial approach, an integrated multidimensional theoretical and methodological framework is formulated for empirical case study research in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. Quantitative and qualitative mixed methods served to collect empirical data in 2007 and 2009. The author's intention is to better understand planning for urban disaster recovery in an American city and formulate resulting planning recommendations. This dissertation contributes to future sustainable and just recovery paradigms in the context of recurring urban disaster events.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can assist decision making in a number of fields by enhancing our knowledge of subsurface features. Non-destructive investigations and controls of civil structures are improving day by day, however the scientific literature reports only a few documented cases of GPR applications to the detection of voids and discontinuities in hydraulic defense structures such as river embankments and levee systems. We applied GPR to the monitoring of river levees for detecting animal burrows, which may trigger levee failures by piping. The manageability and the non-invasiveness of GPR have resulted to be particularly suitable for this application. First because GPR is an extensive investigation method that enables one to rapidly cover a wide area, locating voids that are difficult and costly to locate using other intrusive methods. Second, GPR returns detailed information about the possible presence of voids and discontinuities within river embankments. We document a series of successful GPR applications to detect animal burrows in river levees.

- by Marco Bittelli and +1
- •
- Geophysics, Decision Making, Ground Penetrating Radar, Applied Geophysics

A widely-noted change in the North Atlantic circulation in the 1970s affected 2 the spatial distribution and seasonal pattern of rainfall over Ireland. To examine if 3 this was accompanied by a change on short duration precipitation extremes, multi-4 decadal time series from the second half of the twentieth century of thirteen hourly 5 precipitation stations in Ireland have been analysed for the occurrence of extreme 6 values over several durations of up to 24 hours. Strong evidence was found for 7 a change since the late 1970s in short duration rainfall depths, particularly in the 8 west of the country. Precipitation depth-duration-frequency analyses over two 9 sub-periods showed that at several locations, storm event magnitudes which cor-10 responded to a 30 year return period before 1975 had a return period close to 11 10 years in the post-1975 period. The widespread increase in spring and autumn 12 rainfall and the local increases in the frequencies and magnitudes of severe rain-13 falls have implications for engineering hydrology, flood risk analysis and water 14 resources management. The necessity of using up-to-date data to derive design 15 storm magnitudes is stressed, due to the possible influence of underlying climatic 16 shifts. Furthermore, as non-stationarity has been demonstrated, the use of long 17 timeseries extending beyond thirty years into the past will result in underestima-18 tion of storm intensities in many areas.

- by Paul Leahy
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- Climate Change, Time Series, Climate variability, Stress

Flooding is a natural phenomenon in Albania. The floods are flashy and flood – waters occupy the floodplain; in the biggest rivers, close to the rivermouth area, these waters inundate the floodplain for several weeks.Attempts have been made to alleviate flood situation in Albania by building protective dykes and creating upstream storage. Although many of these measures have been beneficial, they also served to encourage further encroachment upon river floodplains, thereby raising the potential for flood damage. Actually, more than half of the Albanian population lives very close to the rivermouth areas, where the risk of flooding is higher. The structural solution is only a partial one; the only long-term solution consists of keeping flood-vulnerable development and uses out of the floodplain. In order to evaluate the flood potential, a statistical study in national scale was carried out. The peak discharges for different return periods are computed using statistical method and a map of the flood potential for the country is designed. Those constructions had a relevant protective role during the flooding of the winter 1970-71. Non structural measures consist of measures undertaken for flood warning or flood forecasting or different studies like flood-mapping, estimation of inundation risk and inundation zones and possible damages.

De 2010 à 2016, 715 projets d’adaptation et de résilience au changement climatique ont été financés en Afrique de l’Ouest pour plus de 7,3 milliards de dollars américains. Mais la connaissance des risques hydro-climatiques ne va pas de pair et reste peu orientée vers l’aide à la décision. L’objectif de ce rapport est de développer une analyse du risque d’inondation à l’échelle régionale (avec la commune comme unité géographique d’analyse) sur la base des informations existantes, reproductible au fil du temps et dans l’espace, utile à la décision. L’analyse est réalisée sur la région de Dosso (Niger), la plus touchée par les inondations dans le pays le plus à risque hydro-climatique en Afrique de l’Ouest. Le rapport identifie et analyse le risque d'inondation sur la période 1998-2016 pour chacune des 43 communes de la région. Au cours de 19 ans, on observe une hausse des précipitations sur le grand Nord et le Sud de la région et des déficits sur le Centre-Est et partie du Nord. Les inondations sont produites par débordement du fleuve Niger, suite au ruissellement et à la remonté des eaux (dallols). Dans la région de Dosso, 356 localités (482 000 habitants) ont été inondées entre 1998 et 2016, dont 62 pendant plusieurs années. Le niveau de risque est mesuré avec l’Indice de Risque d’Inondation (IRI) en tant que produit de l’aléa (probabilité de retour d’une pluie critique) et des dommages (personnes affectées, maisons et champs inondés). Quatorze communes s’avèrent être à très fort et fort risque d’inondation. Les communes les plus à risque selon la zone agro écologique dominante sont Zabori (dallol), Tounouga (dallol et fleuve), Tanda (fleuve), Tessa (plateau), Falwel (zone pastorale), Tombo Koarey I (zone dunaire).

- by Maurizio TIEPOLO
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- Niger, Disaster risk reduction, Flood Risk, Risk Index